Writers › Writer / Poet
Yan Jidao
Northern Song lyricist, youngest son of the chief minister Yan Shu, who held only minor posts and wrote wistful song lyrics collected as Xiaoshan ci
In a study at night, a desk holds a brush pot, a porcelain vase with a plum branch, a lit red lantern, a folded fan and an unrolled blank scroll, with no one seated there, while through a round window the moon rises over a lake with a sailboat.
Also known as Zi Shuyuan · Hao Xiaoshan
- Roles
- Writer / Poet
Yan Jidao, courtesy name Shuyuan, sobriquet Xiaoshan, came from Linchuan in Fuzhou and was the youngest son of the chief minister Yan Shu. He never rose beyond minor posts such as market supervisor at Xutian, assistant prefect of Qianning and judge in Kaifeng. When Zheng Xia was punished in 1074 for presenting a picture of refugees against the New Policies, a poem from Yan was found in his house and Yan was briefly jailed. Many of his lyrics recall the singing girls Lian, Hong, Pin and Yun, and a famous couplet in his *Linjiang xian*, on a lone figure among falling petals while swallows fly in pairs, was borrowed from the Five Dynasties poet Weng Hong. Huang Tingjian's preface to his *Xiaoshan Lyrics* (*Xiaoshan ci*) lists his 'four follies', among them refusing to court the powerful though his career stalled. Shao Bo records that he declined a visit from Su Shi, remarking that half the men in the Council of State had once been his family's guests.
Life and times
- UnknownBorn
Songci poet of the late Northern Song - UnknownDied
Works
Literature · Lyrics15- Immortal by the River · Towers Locked After the DreamSongYan Jidao's short ci remembering Xiaopin, the night they met and the moon that saw her home
- Butterflies Love Flowers · Dreaming down the Misty Southern RoadsSongYan Jidao's ci of searching in dreams for a lost love, with no way to send a letter
- Butterflies Love Flowers · Drunk at Parting in the West TowerSongYan Jidao's ci recalling a drunken farewell at the west tower and how easily people part
- Partridge Sky · Coloured Sleeves and a Jade CupSongYan Jidao's short ci of meeting an old love again after years apart, half afraid it is a dream
- Hawthorn Fruit · Long Dreams of the Frontier PassesSongYan Jidao's short ci of longing across far passes, ageing with love and hoping to meet again
+10 more
- Magnolia Blossom · The East Wind's Heartless SchemeSongYan Jidao's short ci in which the east wind strips the flowers and spring grief turns to wine
- Magnolia Blossom · Dusk on a Courtyard with a SwingSongYan Jidao's short ci of an old haunt revisited: the beloved is gone, only his horse remembers
- Peace and Happiness · She Could Not Make Him StaySongYan Jidao's short ci of a ferry farewell, in which a woman's clinging turns to a curt dismissal
- Master Ruan Returns · Old Scent and Faded PowderSongYan Jidao's short ci of a woman whose lover's letters thin out until even her dreams fail
- Master Ruan Returns · Dew Turns to Frost on the Golden PalmsSongYan Jidao's short ci of a Double Ninth feast far from home, with old wildness to drown sorrow
- Six-Measure Song · Green Shade as Spring EndsSongYan Jidao's long ci of a hidden courtship: glances, coded letters and a tryst by moonlight
- Walking the Imperial Street · Green Trees South of the StreetSongYan Jidao's mid-length ci of returning to her street: the trees remain, but she is gone
- Beautiful Lady Yu · A Sky Like Water Beyond the RailingSongYan Jidao's short ci of a woman at the railing, waiting each full moon for one who never comes
- Keeping Spring · A Painted Screen at the Edge of the SkySongYan Jidao's short ci that wakes before a painted screen to letters, grief and old tears
- Longing for One Far Away · Red Leaves and Yellow FlowersSongYan Jidao's short ci of autumn longing, in which tears are ground into the ink of a letter
Family tree
- Direct kinFather
Yan Jidao
